1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine and a playing method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Among existing gaming machines, there is a gaming machine including: two or more gaming terminals; terminal controllers respectively provided to the gaming terminal, each of which controllers causes associated one of the gaming terminals to run a game; a center controller for controlling all the terminal controllers. This type of gaming machine is disclosed in specifications of U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,459, U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,709, or U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,013.A terminal controller of a gaming terminal runs a game and awards a payout based on the result of the game independently of another terminal controller of another gaming terminal. The center controller provides various jackpots such as progressive jackpots, mystery jackpots, or the like.
Further, the known gaming machine awards a payout according to a winning (game result) formed as a game is played. For example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,048, there is a gaming machine in which game media are reimbursed when loss of the game media reaches a predetermined amount.
An object of the invention is to provide a gaming machine having an entertainment characteristic which is not brought about by the above mentioned prior art, and a playing method thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a gaming machine and a playing method thereof, each realizing a new gaming characteristic by qualifying a player to join a special game through a chance game run at the same time a base game is run.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a gaming machine and a playing method thereof, each increasing player's expectations of refund.